To say the Yankees’ belief in spring training that Michael Pineda was ready to become a top-of-the-rotation hurler was blind wouldn’t be fair.
With a dirty slider and a fastball to keep hitters honest, the towering right-hander had a chance to slide in behind staff ace Masahiro Tanaka and in front of Nathan Eovaldi. Even two lousy starts to end 2015 could be ignored because of a 12-10 record that in hindsight wasn’t as good as it looked in print.
Thirty-two games into the season and the only place the 27-year-old Pineda is sliding into this year is oblivion.